Maria Herrera

Maria T Herrera, DSW, LCSW, MSW, is an Adjunct Social Work and Career Development professor and has been at Dominican University since the summer of 2021 upon receiving her doctorate in social work. Her research focused on Immigration and Belongingness grounded on Self-Psychology (Heinz, Kohut) and The Hero’s Journey (Joseph Campbell). She recently opened a private therapy practice in Aurora, offering affordable fees, as she aims to help clients without insurance or the ability to pay high fees for much-needed therapy.

As a retired Social Worker II for the State of Illinois, her work experience includes IDOC and DCFS, where she pursued social justice by humanizing, seeing, and valuing the individuals she interacted with daily. As a Hotline volunteer with several years of experience, she, again, sought to listen and honor the callers in need of a nonjudgmental ear.

As an immigrant bilingual social worker, she believes education is the most valuable self-gift, a tool for social inclusion, eliciting change and leading to a healthy ego within an evolving and often unreceptive society. She is a self-published author of two poetry books (English/Spanish) and advocates for the wealth of the mother tongue. As an educator, she seeks to inspire, heal, and guide the new generation as future leaders to respect and enrich their shared environment.